Kracken
Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this.
Warning:Male/male sex, graphic, sap, angst
Balloons
Tiger Tails
"We are getting sick of your shit, Maxwell," one of Duo's fellow
classmates growled. "You're bringing down our class average. I want to
graduate at the top, not dragged to the bottom by you."
Duo grinned from under his fall of bangs, hands stuck in the pockets of
his exercise pants. Wearing only a tank top, with 'Government Flunky'
handwritten across the back, he looked very small next to his much
larger classmates. Backed into the corner of the locker room, everyone
else pointedly supporting them by ignoring their actions, it seemed as
if he was about to pay for his jokes and failure to toe the line.
"There's only three of you," Duo pointed out with a snicker.
The leader, a gorilla with a crew cute, frowned sharply. "We're giving
you only one chance to change that shirt, Maxwell. If you don't,
whatever happens will be your fault."
Duo looked up just enough so that the leader caught the glitter of his
purple eyes. "Listen, kid," Duo warned him. "The only person
who's
gonna be taught a 'lesson' here, is gonna be you. Don't make me hurt you."
"Kid?" the leader growled, nostrils flaring, "I'm fucking older than you!"
One of his cronies smacked a fist into his palm and grunted, "I'm first."
"Didn't think you swung that way," Duo snickered, "but I'm not interested."
Gorilla sidekick number one went red in the face with anger and raised
a ham of a fist. The leader grabbed it and pushed it away., telling
Duo that he was more bluff than violent, but he looked anything but
friendly, as he leaned over Duo and said, "Come on, shorty. Take the
shirt off- "
Gorilla sidekick number three reached out to grab Duo's braid. "Or
we'll cut this off and cram it up your ass!"he interjected hotly.
A strong hand grabbed Gorilla number three by the thumb and
incapacitated him by a casual twist and a foot planted into the back
of his knee. He fell with a cry of pain. Heero moved to stand beside Duo.
"Fighting is against the rules," Heero informed them calmly.
"So is being out of uniform," the leader snarled. "His conduct
affects
all of us, Yuy."
"I realize that," Heero replied, "but you are not the one who
decides
what punishment Maxwell receives."
"As if he could lay a finger on me anyway," Duo growled and then
glared
at Heero. "I don't need your help!"
Heero glared back. "I know that. I wasn't offering any. My only concern
is keeping the peace."
"Well, mine too," Duo grinned. "Isn't that why we're all here?"
he
asked pointedly as he looked at his classmates. "To uphold the law and
keep the peace?"
The leader frowned, thinking about that, grunted, and then said in
warning, "I don't know what you want, Maxwell, but I intend to become
a top Preventer officer. I intend to do my duty and serve the public
with honors. You are not going to screw that up for me, by making us
bottom of the class."
They turned and left and Duo chuckled. "He was scared."
Heero shot him a look and replied, "Sometimes, men who are afraid, are
the most dangerous kind."
Duo went pensive at that and nodded, "Still, guess two gundam pilots
was too much for his nerve."
Heero dug a shirt out of his locker and tossed it to Duo. "Put that on
and stop antagonizing everyone."
Duo caught it deftly. "I wouldn't be me if I didn't."
Heero glanced around them, but everyone was already filing out of the
locker room for exercises. "Why do you insist on acting this way?"
Heero wanted to know. "If you want to pass this course, if you want to
join Preventers, if you really want to keep the peace, then breaking
regulations isn't the way to go about it."
Duo fisted the shirt and looked down at it. "Heero... there's a lot
that you don't know about me. I've always felt that I've been living
on borrowed time, that I'm not... well... that ..." He sighed and then
tried again. "I don't know how to explain it. I guess I can only say,
'better me than them.', okay? I don't know if you get that, or you
ever will, but that's me in a nutshell. Most people have stuff to
loose, people who'll miss them, lives that'll stop without them.
Me..." He shrugged expressively. "So, there, that's more than I've
ever told Quatre and he's my best friend. I guess I'm telling you
because, I think, maybe you have a part of that.... only... maybe you
want to... and you think that's the be all end all for you... living
to bring about peace. I ... I just don't want anyone else to have to
do it."
Duo snickered and looked about the now empty locker room. "Locker room
confessions," Duo laughed, but then looked at Heero nervously.
Heero stared into Duo's eyes, very thoughtful, and then admitted, "If
he had touched your hair, I would have hurt him, badly."
Duo felt surprise and then confusion. "Yeah?"
"Locker room confession," Heero echoed, and then turned and walked
away, as if he couldn't face his own revelation.
"You're not going to make it, half pint," Duo snickered at Hilde as they lined up at the beginning of the test course, warming up, and trying to defuse some of their tension.
Hilde lifted a middle finger to him. In shorts and a tank top, she looked very small next to the larger men and women; a child playing at being an athlete.
"Duo, " Quatre admonished. He looked cool and collected, but he also had the lean build of a runner and an air of confidence.
Duo shrugged. "Just trying to help her out. The angrier Hilde gets, the more determined she is to make you eat your words."
One of the bulkier men made as if to stretch and then his elbow arced toward Duo's head. A hand blocked it with ease and Chang Wu Fei glared at the man. The man glared back, but turned away.
"I was ready for that," Duo complained.
"He was," Trowa agreed, quietly adjusting the laces on his shoe.
"Can I predict the weather?" Wu Fei grumbled.
"Well, yes, since it's all done by satellite now," Duo snickered.
Wu Fei gave him a glare, now, but Duo simply grinned back.
"Where's Heero?" Quatre asked, looking over the men and women in sudden concern.
Duo frowned and looked as well. "Don't know. It's not like Mr. Anal to be late."
"He wouldn't miss the challenge of the course, either," Wu Fei interjected. "Perhaps something's wrong?"
The course was a challenge and the reason why it was the one chosen to give a Preventer his passing grade. If Heero didn't show, it was not only insubordination, but a failing grade. Heero wouldn't risk that, not for anything, Duo knew. That meant that something had gone terribly wrong. Duo eyed the men and women around him and saw calculating looks in return. They could mean to trip him up on the course, or maybe, they had already tripped him up? It was possible that his exchange with Heero, in the locker room, hadn't gone unnoticed. If they thought that they could get back at him by harming Heero...
Duo tried to imagine a scenario where Heero might have been overpowered or harmed in any way. He didn't believe that the people around him had the ability, but there was always a chance.
"I'm going to go find him," Duo announced.
Quatre caught his arm in surprise. "But you'll fail the course!"
Duo shrugged, pulled out of his grip, and said, "Maybe my priorities have changed?"
"Maxwell?" Saladay barked. Duo didn't look back at his trainer as he walked off the course, but he heard her voice carry after him. "I knew you'd fail, L2 trash!"
That made Duo steam and ball his fists, but he didn't slow his steps, especially when he knew that she would soon call security to pick him up. His expulsion was a given now. Duo Maxwell was not going to be a Preventer, he was not going to take the bullet for someone else who, he imaged, deserved to live more than himself, and he was not going to make use of a life that had been very pointless without his sacrifices. He suddenly wanted very much to live and to explore the possibilities with one young man in particular.
His leg bothered him. Duo hissed and winced as he forced it to keep in motion. He had bandaged it and shot it full of drugs to keep it fluid, but nothing would have cut the pain and not hampered with his reaction time. He could feel it keenly now and he cursed it as it slowed him in his search.
There! Duo saw Heero seated under the spreading branches of a tree, leaning back on his hands and face upturned to watch clouds float by in a blue sky. He wasn't dressed for the course, but dressed as if he were already expelled, in a white button down shirt and an old pair of jeans.
"Yuy!" Duo shouted as he finally reached him. "You fucking had me worried! Why the hell aren't you out on the course?"
Heero frowned and then gave him a sideways look. "I discovered something more important."
Duo tried to sit gracefully and failed. Heero caught his arm as he flailed and eased him down. Bad leg stretched out before him, Duo regarded Heero as if he'd lost his mind.
"More important than everything you've lived and breathed for?" Duo asked in disbelief. "What the hell could that be?"
Heero looked back up at the clouds and didn't say anything for the longest time. Duo stared at his profile and then a reason came to him. He didn't half believe it.
"You wanted me to come after you, didn't you?" Duo accused uncertainly, and then angrily, "You wanted me to miss the course trial!"
"The strain on your leg might have crippled you," Heero explained.
"That's my business!" Duo fumed.
Heero suddenly looked worried, as if he thought that he might have miscalculated the outcome of his actions. Duo wondered what he had expected, gratitude?
"You could have just told Iron Pants that I wasn't fit," Duo accused.
Heero shook his head. "She hates you. She wanted you to fail and fail badly."
"So, you got yourself expelled... for me? Why the hell would you do that?" Duo demanded.
Heero blinked and then replied carefully, "For the same reason that you came running after me."
"I thought they might have hurt you!" Duo swore. "You think I'd run a stupid course and let you swing?"
"And you gave up everything because of that," Heero pointed out. "I was faced with the same decision."
Duo's mouth was open. He closed it and then rubbed the back of his neck as he stared at Heero. Then, as if in amused defeat, he made an exasperated sound and leaned back on his hands, matching Heero's position. Staring up at the clouds, he asked, "What do we do now?"
"Find out what else we can do beside fight," Heero replied, but then added hopefully, "Together?"
Duo grinned, nodded, and said, "Yeah, sounds good." He frowned at the clouds, "That looks like a two headed swan."
Heero squinted. "With a very large beak."
"And three legs," Duo snickered. He leaned sideways and gave Heero's shoulder a bump with his own and laughed.
"Now it has horns," a voice behind them said.
Duo glanced back and then sighed at the security man staring up at the clouds. The man looked down at him, but his expression wasn't threatening.
"You boys ready to go?" The man asked kindly enough.
"Sure," Duo replied and Heero helped him stand up. "As long as we get to pack and go without any trouble?"
The man nodded. "That's my orders, to see you to the front gate. Preventers doesn't want insubordinate cloud gazers for agents. I'm sure the government will want to grind paperwork and complain about it, but that's what they do." He cocked his head sideways and nodded respectfully. "If you don't mind my saying, though, you two have given enough for the cause. You should be enjoying what you've paid blood for; peace."
"I think we're understanding that, at last," Heero replied and then looked at Duo. "And we've discovered... other interests."
Duo laughed. "Yeah, other interests," he said as he hung an arm over Heero's strong shoulders and walked with him into their new life together.
END *expires from sap overload...*
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